SANDY DENNY

THE market in Sandy Denny’s pre-Fairport Convention recordings has been increasingly well served in recent years. Who Knows Where The Time Goes?, the first major retrospective of the late English folk singer, who died in 1978, started the ball rolling in 1985 with the inclusion of a handful of early home demos. It was followed by The Attic Tracks, a coveted cassetteonly Australian release from the late ’80s. In 2004 came A Boxful Of Treasures and in 2010 an epic eponymous boxset which covered pretty much every inch of Denny’s oeuvre across no less than 19 CDs. Recordings Denny made in 1967 with Alex Campbell and The Strawbs have also been re-released several times over.

In terms of basic housekeeping, everything on this double vinyl Record Store Day release, authorised by the Denny estate, has previously been available elsewhere. Its 27 solo tracks essentially replicate all of disc 12 and two tracks from disc 13 of the mammoth Sandy Denny box which, though exhaustive, was given only a limited release and quickly became prohibitively pricey.

Though dedicated fans may have heard most or all of this material before, it’s the first time the majority of these tracks have been issued on vinyl (there is also a CD version). For the more selective or less solvent listener, Early Home Recordings provides a concise, accessible overview of the evolution of Denny’s artistry between 1966 and 1968, spanning the period when she was first establishing herself in London folk clubs to the months immediately after she joined Fairport in May 1968. The inner gatefold sleeve includes informative liner notes by Pat Thomas, who curated the release, though he needlessly denigrates some of Denny’s contemporaries in the process of rightly trumpeting her brilliance.

What emerges is a dual portrait. Denny is captured as an interpreter of songs ancient and new, as well as a budding singer-songwriter in her own right. Aged 19, she kicks off in 1966 with two songs